TRIP

Thinking of you

Short/fun film from a conference trip to Barcelona

by Siamack
10-May-2008 (11 comments)
...>>>

FICTION

Dream of becoming

Should I wake from this nostalgic dream into the nightmare of living?

by Azarin Sadegh
10-May-2008 (14 comments)
It is dark. Lying under my bed, touching the thick harsh wooden board that holds the mattress, touching the cold metallic bed frame, listening to the drum-like sound of artilleries aimed at invisible enemies. The darkness of night blankets the absurdity of the situation, and still knowing that does not help me to calm down. I lower my hands to the ground, pressing the floor, hard, as if I am trying to dissolve into it, to transform into cold grey vapor--smoke and ashes. My body, my fingers, my back, feel numb, but still not as numb I dream of becoming>>>

LIFE

امشب لوچیا می رقصد

لوچیا، لوچیای بی آزار و مهربان، صدای خاموشان جهان است

by Mahasti Shahrokhi
10-May-2008 (4 comments)
لوچیا ارام و باهوش و بی سر و صدا و بی جنجال است. وقتی سرش را کلاه میگذارند، لوچیا خاموش می ماند و با دستهایش، با همان دستهای فرز و مهربانش تند و تند چیزی را تکرار می کند که من دقیقاً نمی فهمم و لوچیا نفس عمیقی می کشد و دوباره همان را از سر تکرار می کند و آنقدر تکرار می کند تا بفهمش. وقتی می فمهش و از آنچه بر سرش آمده خشمگین می شوم و فریاد می کشم، لوچیا نفس عمیقی می کشد و ساکت می نشیند. >>>

INJUSTICE

Marriage at 10

Victims of both discriminatory laws and punative and traditional discriminations

by Mahboube Hosseinzade
10-May-2008 (8 comments)
It is said that in the slums of Zahedan, there are many houses where several families each occupy a single room in a house. There was an opportunity for us to enter one of these houses. The mother, sister, wife, sister-in-law, father and two brothers of the man who has asked us to go in, as well as several little children all live in a single room. One of the women is 27 and has a 12-year-old son as well as a little girl who is only a few months old. When I ask her at what age she got married, she replies: "At the age of 10!" And later other people tell me that in some of the towns in this region 10 to 11 is indeed the usual age of marriage>>>

STORY

The Spider Killings (20)

Azadeh’s spit landed squarely in the middle of the man’s face

by laleh haghighi
10-May-2008
Ever since he had caught a glimpse of Azadeh wailing over the body of her dead friend in front of the Mausoleum of Imam Reza, Sharif, like a hungry tiger fixated on its prey, had kept close track of her. He had followed her to the police station, wondering when she would be released from questioning, hoping he could approach her for a ride then. But for the two days that Sharif kept his vigil, he had been thwarted in his plans. Coming and going, Azadeh was always accompanied by an older woman. An older woman who struck Sharif as one he had seen before. Well obviously, she must be a prostitute too. These morally ill women stuck together after all>>>

POETRY

Mother’s Day
by Ghahremani
09-May-2008 (9 comments)
Before I became “Mother”
Worry was just a word
Sleep meant long, peaceful nights
Didn’t need fairytales, lullabies or sweet lies
Before I encountered motherhood
Tiny fingers wouldn’t tug at my heart
Someone else’s pain couldn’t make me die >>>

POPE

كاتوليك‌هاي ديروز، مسلمانان امروز

در حاشيه ديدار پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم از آمريكا

by Ahmad Sadri
09-May-2008 (5 comments)
سه سال قبل كاتوليك‌هاي آمريكايي براي انتخاب پاپي دعا مي‌كردند كه مدرن ستيز نباشد و به نص و روح اصول مصوبه در شوراي دوم واتيكان (سال 1965) وفادار باشد. مثلي است كه مي‌گويند خداوند همه دعا‌ها را مي‌شنود ولي بعضي اوقات جواب حضرت باري <نه> است. مسلمانان در آن روزها دستي به دعا نداشتند، ولي شايد بهتر بود آنها هم دعا مي‌كردند.به‌محض اينكه كاردينال راتزينگر سابق <تيارا>ي رهبري كاتوليك‌هاي جهان را بر سر گذاشت، اسقف مايكل فيتز جرالد كه از سوي پاپ جان پل دوم مسوول گفتمان با مسلمانان بود با تقليل منصب به‌كار ديگري گمارده شد و راهبان فرانسيسكن از مذاكراتشان با مسلمانان منع شدند. پنج ماه بعد در دانشگاه ريگنزبرگ پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم اسلا‌م را مستقيما مورد حمله قرار داد.>>>

LIFE

Do you feel it?

Almost 100 signs of getting older

by varjavand
09-May-2008 (6 comments)
When I look intently at my black and white picture on my high school diploma, I realize how the passage of time has taken its toll on me. I remember when I was a kid, any time I did something nice for older people; they wished me to get old, elahi peer beshi. Now, that prayer has been almost answered and I am getting older. But believe me it is not much fun to get old. An aged man is like an old car, out of warranty with not much horse power, going up the hill and breathing rapidly but hardly. The pace of life becomes slower and slower with age. The only thing that is easier to do when you are older is waiting>>>

POETRY

Paris catacombs

Death is always chasing us

by Sasan Seifikar
09-May-2008
Underneath Paris
There is a network of subterranean
Chambers and passages
Extending hundreds of kilometers
From the Roman-era
Near the end of the 18th century
When real estate was scarce
While the cemeteries were full
Some of the quarries
Converted into a mass tomb >>>

QUESTION

Force-feeding freedom?

Imagine that we could magically extract a democratic regime from a peaceful neighborhood

by Midwesty
08-May-2008 (20 comments)
dictatorship is a survival tactic for a society. A nation under siege acts exactly like a human body under viral/bacterial attack. When you get sick your movements become minimal, you try to conserve as much energy as possible, you focus on your pain and sufferings so you don’t pay attention as much to your surroundings, and you do many other weird things that you would not normally do. A society under a dictatorial regime is a human body on antibiotics. The free movements in thoughts become minimal, the enemy becomes on the center of focus not the society, and everything gets orchestrated by one person or a group of people in order to conserve energy>>>

IDEAS

نه ادوارد سعید! نه برنارد لوئیس!

اسلام و غرب

by Majid Naficy
08-May-2008 (20 comments)
هنگامی که در سال 1993 به دانشگاه UCLA بازگشتم تا در رشته ی "زبان ها و فرهنگ های خاور نزدیک" درس بخوانم، نظریات پسااستعمارگرایی و بویژه پسانوگرایی باب روز بود، اما من به هیچ یک کششی نداشتم. تجربه ی انقلاب ایران به من درس هایی داده بود که عبارت پردازی های ضد غربی و ضد روشنگری را برایم بی اثر می کرد. هیچگاه از یاد نمی برم یک بار هانس پیتر اشمیت1 استاد آلمانی زبان پهلوی ام نظر مرا راجع به کتاب "خاورشناسی" ادوارد سعید2 جویا شد. میدانستم که او شش سال در هندوستان زندگی کرده تا کاری را که آبراهام آنکتیل د پرون3 فرانسوی، راسموس کریستین راسک4 دانمارکی، ویلیام جونز5 انگلیسی، ابراهیم پورداوود ایرانی و بسیاری دیگر آغاز کردند ادامه بدهد. آن روز برای اولین بار با او از تجربه ی خود در انقلاب ایران سخن گفتم.>>>

FARS

خليفه ای ايستاده، پشت به نام های بزرگ

اکنون می شود ثابت کرد که چرا دولت تنگه بلاغی را به آب بسته است، چرا می خواهد پاسارگاد را ويران کند،

by shokooh.pasargad
08-May-2008 (45 comments)
آيت الله خامنه ای در ديداری از فارس و با اشاره به تخت جمشيد سخنانی گفته اند که دليل بسياری از وقايعی را که در طول چندين سال گذشته در ارتباط با ميراث های تاريخی و فرهنگي و طبيعی ما پيش آمده کاملاً روشن می کند. با سخنان ايشان اکنون ديگر به شکلی کاملاً مستند می شود گفت که دولت و حکومتی که زير نظر و تحت کنترل ايشان است نه از روی عدم مديريت، و نه از روی اشتباه و ندانم کاری، بلکه با برنامه ای حساب شده و به طور کاملاً عمدی به نابود سازی گذشته ی فرهنگي و تاريخی ما برخاسته است، چنان که به قول آقای بهشتی، يکی از مسئولين سابق سازمان ميراث فرهنگي، «در ده سال گذشته بيش از هزار سال تخريب انجام شده است». >>>

PROPHECY

Democracy for all?

The objection has always been in implementation methods applied by the Americans

by Ardavan Bahrami
08-May-2008 (3 comments)
Paul E. Erdman’s colossal #1 bestseller novel -- The Crash of 79 -- was published in 1976 while the recent fuel crisis was very fresh in Western memories. It was an exciting novel, translating complex world monetary and economical issues into simple language for every reader to understand. Using real life personalities, as well as current affairs of the time, it made its message convincing and even made the false portray depicted by the Western propaganda machinery of the Shah of Iran during the 1970’s, more plausible. Nevertheless this calamitous prophecy written three decades ago has never been more pertinent than today>>>

TRAVELER

Abadani girl goes back home

We arrived I was thrilled to hear the much familiar Abadani accent

by Azam Nemati
07-May-2008 (14 comments)
It seemed like I had waited for eternity, but March 13 finally arrived. This would be my second trip to Iran in nearly 25 years. I spent the entire year working and cut off all my social and cultural activities because I was too busy. During 2007, I only attended two very small gatherings and two weddings and I was perfectly fine. Unlike last year, this year I had reasons, beyond my control, to be afraid of going to Iran. I am too old to change, have no fear and figured if I got held up, I would just deal with it>>>

WATERWAY

To keep it the Persian Gulf

Changing the name will be a very significant blow to the Persian identity

by Ben Madadi
07-May-2008 (47 comments)
This website, and many other Iranian ones, have for some time already been inundated by blogs and threads about a possible danger, the danger that the name for the gulf that is located in the Middle East, south of Iran, to be named Arabian Gulf, from its historical name of Persian Gulf. The concern is indeed genuine, and I quite agree with it. Many changes in this world, especially in the world of mass communications, democracy, lobby etc, take place not necessarily because the change is right, but because the change is well promoted, propagated and sustained. So, the Iranian community is doing its right bit to take preventive actions against the possibility of this name change, in the future>>>
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